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Nightly Ramble: The Grocery Store Edition

Welcome, everyone and their brother, to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble.

ramble-grocery [1]This is the Grocery Store edition.

  • Franken: About an hour ago came word that Al Franken was decalred the winner [2] of the Senate Seat held by Ron Coleman, by the Minn SC. The opinion is here. [3](PDF) I’ve only had a half hour or so to go over it but there’s one point about it that sticks out rather large: There’s no order for Pawlenty to certify him.  Also is the amount of time taken to hand down this ruling. Both of these points back my idea that this is likely going to the USSC.  So do we get to whine like Al Gore has done for the last decade, now? Yeah, right.
  • Madoff; 150 years is too long?  Oh, please [4]. Eli, I’ve got respect for you man, but this one’s all out of whack.  Take the 150 years, and be damned glad the judge didn’t just turn him loose in a room full of his victims, which would have been justice in my view.  As I said yesterday, I’m uncomfortable with the populist/wealth envy tilt this thing has predictably taken but let’s let’s not get stupid, either.
  • That spiked report: You’ll recall that in yesterday’s Ramble,I  linked a report that the EPA wanted sqauashed. Now, Senator Inhoffe is calling for an investigation [5]. At issue; was the report withheld because it might influnce votes in Congress?  No DUH, people.  Of course implicit in that question, ought to be another: Do such facts as were in this report, make a difference to people whose only motivation appears to be party loyalty?
  • Obama The Colonial: Whatever else happens, today, you need to read this from L.E. Ikenga at the American Thinker [6]. Based on some feedback I got yesteray, Limbaugh read it yesterday, and I hear Jim Quinn at WPGB read the whole thing this morning. Brilliant piece.
  • Promises Expired: obamaapproval.jpg [7]Now that the honeymoon is over, so are all those promises we were made about taxes. And the press just laughs it all off. [8]
  • Less than Zero:  That’s where PresBO’s approval rating is these days [9].
  • The Test:  Look, I think Micheal Kinsley is a horse’s backside on a scale only slightly smaller than say, a Bill O’Reilly.  I find seveal areas of his column this monring on the topic of healthcare problematic. Example:
    kinsley2 [10]

    Kinsley

    Less care doesn’t necessarily mean worse care. The administration is investing great hopes (and $1.1 billion of stimulus money) in “comparative effectiveness research.” Because we don’t collect and compare in any systematic way the vast piles of data we have about individual patients and their treatment, we know astonishingly little about which treatments work and which are a waste of money. The administration is touting the figure of 30 percent of all health-care costs as spending that may accomplish nothing.I suspect that what a billion-plus dollars’ worth of research will find is that perhaps 30 percent of what we spend on health care is almost entirely worthless, or just barely better than a much cheaper alternative. Or it might be better and no one knows for sure. Denying someone these treatments or tests is rationing.

    What Kinsley(not unexpectedly)  fails to question here is how much of the problem is government induced, already. Adding more government to the issue, will make things worse, and merely altering existing legislation is simply shifting the deck chairs. All this gets by him. He also seems too much consumed by wealth envy.  In fairness, he gets this one correctly:

    Here is a handy-dandy way to determine whether the failure to order some exam or treatment constitutes rationing: If the patient were the president, would he get it? If he’d get it and you wouldn’t, it’s rationing.

    Now, if only he could disabuse himself of the idea that government needs to be even a small part of this process. Nah… that’d be a miracle.

  • It’s not like I’ve not predicted this: Over at Pajamas Media , Ron Radosh takes a look at Obama terrorism policy and suggests he’s channeling GWB. [11]
    Radosh [12]

    Radosh

    With the Obama administration promising to close Guantanamo, it has become apparent that the President and his advisors have suddenly realized that they have left themselves no wiggle room when it comes to figuring out what to do with dangerous terrorists who previously would have been confined there.Hence, The Washington Post reports that the administration is preparing an executive order that would give it the authority to incarcerate suspects indefinitely. If this sounds to readers somewhat similar to the policy candidate Obama fiercely attacked as repressive Bush administration policy, that is because it is.

    Long time readers will remember I made the case [13]this would happen both here and at PJM back in January, and confirmed it just a month or so ago [14], now. As I told Ron, it’s nice to have such a well-written confirmation of that opinion.

  •  More on Honduras:  You’ll recall I mentioned the efforts of world socialism Including Barack Obama, to get Honduras under their control, yesterday? Boortz gets into it in some detail today [15].
  • Quack:  If it walks like a duck….(vid) [16]
  • Rudy for Govenor?  Well, I have disagree ments with the man, but he’s one I could get behind under the rule of ‘the lesser evil’. Meanwhile, the rumors fly… [17]
  • Tax cuts WHERE? In Hungary, that’s where [18].  How bad is it when even the Hungarians get the message our own administration and congress cannot?  Oh… and Germany, too. [19]

The Nightly Ramble is a weekday feature of BitsBlog.